I wanted to drive the Cherohala Skyway before I left and since I didn’t have any plans for Saturday and the weather was glorious, I decided to head out. Lucky for me Mark and Craig didn’t have anything better to do and decided to come along! Because Craig is awesome, you can watch our run on his YouTube channel. We drove down the Hellbender and stopped in at the Tail of the Dragon store so I could load up on stickers.

Helping Mark and Craig slay the dragon!

I found some awesome hand painted Chucks with dragons, but they must be ordered online. Outside there was a tent with bug repellent and they salesman applied it to the front of my car. That was awesome because I was about to be photographed leading a run down the Dragon! As we left Mark let me go first so My Precious would look nice in the pictures. And boy howdy, did she ever!

Look at My Precious leading the run down the Dragon! I’m so proud right now…

We stopped at an overlook along the way and got out to take a few pictures. Then we loaded up again and headed back out. I think I was supposed to stop at the base of the dragon, but I overshot the mark and blasted right past. I was a little tense about going first and keeping an eye out for radar. Poor Craig didn’t need another ticket and I’m not terribly slow in My Precious! Luckily we made it into town without getting pulled over. We all filled up and then Mark led the way to the Skyway. We stopped at the first overlook and the view was breathtaking!

Overlooking Tennessee on the Skyway

We stopped at the second overlook and there wasn’t anyone else around so we lined up our cars to take a group shot. As we were climbing out, a VW Beetle rolled past. And then another, and another, and another… Forty of them pulled in together!

Photobombed by 40 bugs!

They were kind enough to pull in far enough away so that we could still take our shot.

A bunch of mean Minis on the Cherohala Skyway

And then we went to check out their cars, like we do. That’s when I saw the second most beautiful car in the entire world, Sunshine!

Second most beautiful car in the world. (Sorry Kenna! But My Precious will always be first in my book 😉

I met her driver (Kenna) and told her how much I loved her car. One thing led to another and then we ended up at my car, which she also loved. Before we parted we totally decided to become Facebook friends (Hi Kenna!) While we were admiring the view our friends Shelly and Melissa pulled up!

Hard to take good selfies on windy mountaintops. I’ve got skillz!

Then we all piled in and headed back towards Robbinsville. Shelly and Melissa peeled off towards the Dragon. And I mean that literally, Shelly is super speedy! Mark and Craig and I decided to top off our tanks and grab a quick lunch. The Southern Gals Diner was open and had really interesting decor.

The taxidermied animals in the foyer were a little off putting. I had the chicken just in case…

We made it back to the Alicyn Drew Photography tent in time to catch the fashion shoot. Even though it was Stephanie’s day to assist, Melissa was drafted to run the fog machine. I was tapped to play the music. As I blared Whitesnake over and over and over, Melissa really smoked it up. Our model was busting out all over that car, like a real life Tawny Kitaen.

It wasn’t that it was taking so long, it was just really, really hot up in there!

Thank God Melissa was there, she’s a master packer. Craig also stayed to help out, because he’s the most helpful one. We had the tent packed and cleared in time to meet a bunch of other DCMM folks back at our cabin to make a dinner run to The Hub in Robbinsville. As we left somehow I ended up being the sweeper. The sweeper is the car at the end that makes sure everyone stays together and reports out if any of the cars get left behind at lights and such. It’s a job that is much easier if the rest of your line doesn’t leave you so far behind you are out of radio range!

I finally caught up and we turned into The Hub. It’s the only place in town with an actual smoker and as Ali says, they sure know how to use it!

Once a gas station, now they have the only smoker and the only espresso machine in Robbinsville. I’m guessing they are very, very popular.

Dinner was fantastic and it was even better when were joined by another couple from the Rocket City Motor Club. They used to live in Alexandria and then moved to Huntsville. Coincidentally I used to do work in Hunstville and then I moved to Alexandria! Also, they were super interesting. Sadly, they are being transferred back to their native country (Germany) and they will miss our twisties very, very much.

True story, I got a ticket on the Autobahn once. Turns out there are some places with speed limits. Who knew? Well, I guess they did…

We went back to the tent to pick up the remaining items and then headed up to the cabin. Mark and Craig left for a darkness run and Hilary was out with the American Job guys helping them arrange a visit to DC. Melissa, Ali and I made a quick trip to the lodge to pay our balance and reserve our cabin for next year. I also got to say goodbye to Al and Miriam.

Sad to see Al and Miriam return to Florida. Come back Miriam!

We went back to the cabin to start packing. Ali doesn’t drink so Melissa and I had to polish off the last bottle of wine ourselves. Sadly, the travel corkscrew I carry with me is not terribly effective and neither one of us had much luck. I suggested using a knife to pry the cork out. Melissa was making great progress until the bottle slipped, the cork sank, and wine spewed out across the kitchen.

In hindsight this might not have been the most effective way to uncork the wine.

As soon as I snapped a couple of pictures I rushed to help her clean up.

Hard to tell in this photo but there was wine literally everywhere.

Then she suggested using some coffee filters to strain the cork as we poured. Genius!

We had an excessive number of coffee filters anyway.

By the time we actually got the wine into the glasses we were laughing so hard we couldn’t drink it. When Mark and Craig came home we were giggling hysterically and decided it was too much fun not to share it with the world. We decided to make a Wifi Run. One of the only places in Fontana that has reliable wifi is the General Store. It was already closed by the time we arrived but we didn’t care, we were topless in My Precious and finally back online!

Next year we are going to volunteer to lead a Wifi Run. Hell, I’ll even be sweeper for that one!

Mark had given Ali his phone to post a picture and it suddenly occurred to us, he’d probably want to take a picture of his lovely wife ‘fluttering” with her butterfly game because she looks so hot when she does it. I borrowed the phone to snap the picture (sorry Mark, but she was fluttering with her phone, what else could I do?) Once Ali posted it on his wall, Melissa and I decided we should like it. We wanted him to know we thought it was great that he was so supportive of Ali’s hobby. And of course we needed to post comments, that’s very validating.

We went home to clean up our mess, but it was late and it looked like a lot of work, so we gave up! After all tomorrow is another day!

This is what the morning after looked like…